The invention relates to a collective connection device for wire conductors of electrical power distribution systems.
Such collective connection devices are common for ground wires, neutral conductors, or other conductors of the same potential in industrial distribution plants, in household distributing systems, and also in industrial control structures. They all have a current collecting busbar, in which a plurality of terminal blocks are integrated or are fitted onto or placed onto separately manufactured terminal blocks, so that they are mechanically and electrically connected with the current collecting busbar. The terminal blocks themselves can be used for the wiring of flexible and/or rigid conductors, and they are commonly in the form of spring couplings or screw clips.
The German Industrial Standard (DIN 43-871) requires that such collective connection devices must have a multiple number of smaller terminal blocks for wire conductors of a smaller cross section (e.g. 14 terminal blocks with a terminal region of 1.5-4 mm.sup.2) and a lesser number of larger terminal blocks for wire conductors of a larger cross section (e.g., one input terminal and two output terminals, each with a terminal region of 6-16 mm.sup.2).
This multiple number of terminal blocks per collective connection device requires a considerable length of the current collecting busbar if the terminal blocks are tightly arranged right next to one another on the collecting busbar. In electrical power distribution systems, this often leads to place or space problems, especially since in the crosswise extent to the longitudinal direction of the busbar, the space required for the collective connection device, e.g., in a service cabinet, is always determined by the larger terminal blocks for the wire conductors of the greatest cross section.